Release: Data Migration Assistant (DMA) v3.5

Overview

The Data Migration Assistant (DMA) enables you to upgrade to a modern data platform by detecting compatibility issues that can impact database functionality on your new version of SQL Server. The tool recommends performance and reliability improvements for your target environment. DMA allows you to move your schema, data, and uncontained objects from your source server to your target server. DMA replaces all previous versions of the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor (SSUA) and should be used to upgrade most versions of SQL Server (see below for supported versions).

What's new in v3.5?

The DMA 3.5 release consists of significant performance improvements migrating to Azure SQL Database. Our benchmark tests indicate that migrations to Azure SQL Database are at least 4 times faster than migrations using the prior versions of DMA. Memory footprint is further optimized to improve the stability of the migration workflow.

DMA now allows you to skip assessments during the schema and data migrations, if you have already performed the assessment and addressed any breaking schema objects prior to migration. This will further accelerate your migrations.

This latest version of DMA also includes the fix to address an issue related to the tool crashing when an invalid network share path is provided for backup files, when performing an upgrade of a legacy version of SQL Server on-premises to a later version or to SQL Server on Azure VMs.